THE NEW YORKER ful preparation and presentation, and in apt surroundings, live performances can draw singers, players, and listeners together in to the communal experience that these works were meant to pro- vi de. 1\ N authentic sound for Bach's can- .r-1.. tatas may be hard to achieve; an authentic sound for Handel's operas is impossible, since we no longer have castratos to take the heroic roles. An enthusiast may find an eIghteenth-cen- tury theatre, equip it with scenery in the eighteenth-century manner, even light it-fire regulations permitting- with lamps and candles, and hire a band playing eighteenth-century in- struments or copies thereof; but Nero, Otho, Tamerlane, and Julius Caesar will still have to be played by women en travesti or by countertenors (unless we are prepared to hear their music growled out, an octave too low, by baritones) After two centuries of neg- lect, Handel's operas have returned to the theatre, and performance styles for them have been found that attempt, in various ways, to reconcile the conven- tions of Handel's day and the practi- calities of our own. There have been . . some curIOUS experIments. To attend a Handel opera this sea- son It was necessary to travel-to Bos- ton, where, in March, the New Eng- land Chamber Opera Group staged his "Imeneo" in the Massachusetts Col- lege of Art. I have now seen most of Handel's operas on the stage, done in manners that range from the straight verismo favored in Halle, the com- poser's birthplace, to the Bummer) with which Franco Zeffirelli decked "Alcina" ( for Joan Sutherland, in Venice, Dallas, and London), but had never before seen a production acted out in quite so odd a style as that of the New England "Imeneo." The pro- gram book cited some sentences from Manfred Bukofzer's "Music in the Baroque Era"-among them, "The arias of the opera seria provided the composer with only one basic affection and ruled out the detailed description of single words." The second state- ment, at least, is questionable, and in any case Handel's genius resists the rigid application of general rules. But Rafael de Acha, the director of "Imeneo," evidently set out to illus- trate the sentence. He asked his singers to strike fancy poses and hold them throughout the arias, singing the while with deadpan faces. They, as it hap- pened, were too sensitive to the dra- matic power of Handel's music to maintain the style with complete con- 131 @ _ A '$ "*' . ,....... You'll never know real comfort until you've worn the original. . <..?c 0.:..:. , "\, ->" " It t r---- "'- ..., t 11 .:. ::W"1 ," } ' .,.. :Nt- .... ""v-.. ..::": )0 :...::.... .. .. :.:::::. ;;,... Ii ... :(...:: :.;. :::.':: .: ...::.;;:.; '. ....; :....::.. ::::. -:::::: %.J 1 When we created the Wallabee '^. ! _ shoe, it was as though we'd in- vented comfort. Nothing ever felt so relaxing, so supportive, and so comfortable before. Or since. The Wallabee is made of genuine top-quality leather, hand stitched and shaped to your foot. The soles are deep plantation crepe, aged for toughness and durability. It's the original, the only real Wallabee shoe for men and women. Made only by Clarks of England. . @ S OF ENGLAND Made by skilled hands the world over. Available in a variety of colors. Ladies' shoe, about $37.00. Men's shoe, about $38.00. Men's boot, about $40.00. For the store nearest you write to Clarks, Box 161, FDR Station, N. Y, N. Y 10022, Dept. we